John Richmond of the Alpha Park Public Libray District in Bartonville, IL pondered and ruminated:

“I’m wondering if anyone Out There has changed policies re: what they/you provide with Playaways. And if you took something away, did people holler? (Which, of course, they shouldn’t do, because they’re in a *library*.)”

I am trying to imagine how Judith Krug would have reacted to perhaps the worst marketing idea I have ever seen and the dynamics of a meeting where this idea was proposed and validated. Did no one dare to speak truth to power?

What does a ‘sweater vest’ represent? How the heck does a sweater vest correlate to *any* form of ‘intellectual freedom’? Perhaps what is most appalling is the obvious lack of intellectual effort it takes to say you *support* intellectual freedom by wearing a sweater vest.

Maybe this will take off along the same lines as ‘Geek the Library’, which seriously detracts from the library mission. Bad ideas, once they are validated, tend to gain their own momentum.

Emperor’s New Clothes

This touched off two discussions on the list – one about the efficacy of sweater vests as statements of intellectual freedom and the other about the importance or impotence of the Geek the Library campaign administered by OCLC. And, there were the anticipated reactions from some readers who were simply aghast that I would question poorly made decisions by established bureaucracies. :)

Emily Weak who had been promoting a librarian employment site/ blog on Publib asked:

Somewhat off your topic, but I am curious as to how “Geek the Library” detracts from the library’s mission? Isn’t it about the diversity of resources one can find at the library (i.e. whatever you have a crazy passion for, you can find materials about it at the library)? Is it that you feel geek has negative connotations?

The Side ShowHonoré Daumier

The Geek the Library campaign has evolved into its own bureaucracy supported by grants by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and administered by OCLC. I have found no empirical evidence that Geek the Library is more effective than any other course of advertising or promotion. In fact, there may be many, much more effective methods. Anna Cangialosi with the Chelsea District Library did provide a link to an anecdotal case study on Publib. However, there appears to be no clear data regarding effectiveness. The press release branded by OCLC seems to be yet another self-serving validation for people who self-identify as being a ‘geek’.

Professional librarians have spent years trying to separate themselves from the stereotype of anti-social professional clerks. The movement to create a new stereotype by branding librarians as Geeks may result in many more years of trying to live down that stereotype. Why not continue what we were working towards => a stereotype representing professionalism along with informational and intellectual excellence?

Saving Our Public Lbraries

Rather than blindly accepting that a terrible marketing campaign is in your interest and the interest of your library – why not read a book about how you can promote your library? Why not do a critical assessment of what works and what doesn’t? Why not re-engage in libraryscience as a fundamental set of skills?

Janet Jai has written an excellent book that investigates success stories, expert advice and innovative ideas that support library marketing. If you haven’t ordered it yet, you should order it for your library today: Saving Our Public Libraries Why We Should. How We Can.

nd, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors . .

The American Library Association (ALA) provides data regarding Student Loan Forgiveness. The ALA’s introduction to the process of getting student loans forgiven, however, begins with this message:

Public libraries and schools across the nation are experiencing a dire shortage of librarians, as an alarming number of librarians are reaching the age of retirement.

Of course, there is no dire shortage in public libraries or schools. Public libraries have closed branches, reduced hours, and even outsourced management. School librarian positions have been eliminated with a movement towards automated learning centers. The fact that many librarians are reaching the age of retirement does not mean that they can afford to retire – many have spouses who lost employment during the economic downturn and retirement portfolios have suffered losses and retirement benefits have been reduced. There are librarians who have had no pay increases for years and are just trying to get by.

The ALA’s misleading statement creates an expectation of new graduates that employment opportunities are plentiful. Is it wishful thinking? An attempt at self-fulfilling prophesy? A marketing strategy to emphasize the value of the profession? A marketing strategy to continue to fill library graduate schools? It is hard to understand how a professional organization that supports non-biased critical information analysis would publish and maintain such a misleading representation of employment prospects. However, the result of creating an oversupply of MLS graduates has pitted new librarian vs old. It has led to an expectation that librarians should simply step aside because they are old and *should* retire – completely devaluing lifetime learning and cumulative wisdom.

The 2012 United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports :

Employment of librarians is expected to grow by 7 percent from 2010 to 2020, which is slower than average for all occupations.

Most librarians need a master’s degree in library science.

2010 Median Pay – $54,500 per year

Contrary to what ALA says, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts growth at half the rate of *all other occupations* and less that half the rate of Education, Training and Library Occupations overall. Note that the anticipated growth in employment opportunities is 7% over ten years – less than 1% per year. As a statistical estimate with a margin for error this means that there, in fact, could be negative growth.

Yet, even though the Master’s Degree is required for *most* to be a librarian – without the Master’s Degree in library science the job outlook is even bleaker.

The ALA APA adopted a resolution in 2008 that full-time professional librarians minimum salaries would be set at $41,680. Many full-time librarians still make significantly less. In fact, even the minimum full-time professional salary is less than the living wage estimate required for a household with one adult and one child in Rhode Island.

Unfortunately, in order to complete a master’s degree that may lead to a $41,680 a year professional job, most students will also have to go into substantial debt. According to FinAid.org in 2012 71% of graduate students will complete their degrees with a cumulative average of $53,727 in undergraduate and graduate student debt.

A twenty year fix rate loan for $53,727 requires a monthly payment of $354.57 for a total of $85,097.86. The take home pay at the minimum full-time professional salary level without state tax or dependent deductions is: $34,970.58. So, repayment of the loan to complete a master’s degree in library science could represent over 2 1/2 years of full-time work. That burden of debt means that it may take at least twenty years before being able to begin to save for any sort of retirement.

aying Down Your Debt – You can be forgiven!

The graduate student debt problem in Library Science was brought home by Library Director Michelle Mears of the Public Library of Enid & Garfield County in Oklahoma with her posting on Publib December 12, 2012. Ms. Mears also provided an option for loan forgiveness that every new librarian with federal loans should adopt as soon as they find full-time employment. Your debts can be forgiven for the valuable public service you provide in ten years instead of 20 or more :

I wanted to get the word out to those who may be unaware of their eligibility for student loan forgiveness through the federal government. Working full time in a public library makes you eligible for this program. http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service If you are eligible, you need to get certification documents turned in right away, even if you are still working for the same employer or have only had one employer, and get one from each qualified employer since October 2007. Your loan will likely transfer to a different servicing company who will keep track of qualifying payments.

I just certified my first five years, which leaves me only 5 to go (120 payments total), but this will likely forgive the balance of my loan when I get there. Remember, with interest you end up paying back more than what you originally borrowed, but this program will probably save me about 5 years worth of payments. Ten years seems like a long time to be in repayment, but any forgiveness is better than none. I just wish they would have back-dated it because I have already been paying for 14 years (which means I have paid nearly $58,000 on a $38,000 loan and have yet to make a significant dent in the principal-only recently have my payments been gnawing away at it).

Hope this helps someone, or at least gives them hope that someday a month will come with no student loan payment! ~ Michelle

I have come here not to bury Publib, but to praise it.

Ghost of Publib

Last year, OCLC announced that they would graciously host the popular Publib listserve. With 10 thousand + subscribers representing libraries throughout the world, it certainly represented a win/win situation. OCLC – which sells its products to libraries would host and subscribers – who buy products from OCLC could continue to subscribe. OCLC would benefit from the feel-good PR and the ability to data-mine and Publib subscribers could continue to enjoy the communication resource they have contributed to since the early 1990s.

While being hosted by UC Berkeley and Webjunction, Google and Yahoo! and all of the other major search engines readily indexed the discussions by Publib contributors. Even now, a quick engine search of almost any topic regarding public libraries renders a link to a Publib posting from previous years.

But, all of those links are now broken and the provenance of indexing has been destroyed. Although you may still view cached files, the only way to get live files is to go behind the wall set up by OCLC. Access to the root directory is by subscription only, so the search engines would no longer index the content: http://listserv.oclc.org/ So, everyone who searches any topic ever posted on Publib must now go through OCLC and search the files that they exclusively control.

What a great benefit this must represent to corporate interests of OCLC! Thousands and thousands of postings on every topic regarding public libraries, created by uncompensated authors, and they now control all of the content and its indexing for almost no associated cost and can monitor and data-mine all usage by the library community. OCLC established and litigated ownership and control of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) in OCLC v The Library Hotel and was recently accused of antitrust by SkyRiver and Innovative Interfaces. Does OCLC now effectively have intellectual property rights to all of the work by Publib contributors?

Hosting a listserv is really not a big deal. It is fairly low level technology and relatively easy to manage. With a bit of server space, Open Source programs such as Mailman can be set up that can manage a huge number of subscribers:

Hosting by a non-corporate entity such as a library school or a large library system would have made much more sense. The original iteration with UC Berkeley hosting nested the conversation in a bastion of free speech. Is removing and blocking indexing censorship? Is vetting all new subscribers appropriate? Does the ability to restrict access represent ownership? Does hosting a listserve and controlling access to everything previously written grant intellectual property rights and equate to ownership? Is Publib just another example of intellectual outsourcing?

Time will tell. But, at this time Publib is a ghost of what it once represented.

Beware Graphic Content Ahead!

This graphic image or word cloud was created using Wordle. It is derived from the subjects and authors of postings in PubLib for June 2011. The size of the graphics is directly related to the number of un-weighted unique occurrences each month of the individual words represented. Most automated graphic processes that generate these types of word clouds use additional weight for H1 – H6 tags through feeds. These graphics are not processed with H1 – H6 tags. The titles and authors were copied to Notepad and stripped of all HTML before being run through the Wordle Java platform. The process is case-sensitive so Library is not the same thing as library.

The most prominent word without employing filters would have been Publib. Publib and Fwd were deleted from the plaintext files before processing. In addition, the Wordle program automatically disregards articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.

Sometimes a Catalog is Just a Catalog :

Question: What is the fundamental difference between e-commerce catalog websites such as – HomeDepot, Sears, Amazon, Target, and Walmart and online library catalogs using Horizon, SirsiDynix, Evergreen or III?

One of my friends on Publib recently asked me if I thought there were employment opportunities for Librarians in e-commerce and what training would be needed to get a job.

I think that is a good question to address here with all of the PubLib people. I am a librarian and I have worked in e-commerce – web design, product development, training, data base management and SEO. My former employment (after being a public library director) was as a corporate e-commerce manager. I redesigned a 6,000 product e-commerce website, created blogs and alternate websites for its products and within a year had moved it’s US rank in Alexa from about 60,000 up to around 7,000. I took a year off to complete graduate studies in digital forensics (which I consider directly related to cybrarianship) and recently returned to e-commerce again to manage the databases and organic SEO for an international company with tens of thousands of products specializing in medical equipment and medical supplies.

Almost every college, University and technical school has some sort of a degree program now called something like New Media. The New Media curriculum teaches things like web design, and SEO, and htm*, and programming languages, and social media construction – basically all of this stuff that makes up the web. But, when all is said and done, what we create in e-commerce is a catalog – a catalog broken down into relevant, related categories with multiple access points and meaningful descriptions – so that the end-user can find what they want and we can get it to them efficiently. There is a back-end tie to inventory, prices, features, descriptions, shipping, and various temporal factors.

Traditional Librarian

How does that differ in concept from traditional library cataloging? The argument could be made that traditional libraries do not charge their patrons and the cost / price feature of e-commerce products creates a completely different dynamic. But, it really doesn’t. Every professional librarian knows that nothing is free and although there is no direct charge to the patron finding a book in a catalog – the expenses are paid for up-front through Taxes and Tariffs and Fees (oh my!), Taxes and Tariffs and Fees (oh my!), Taxes and Tariffs and Fees (OH MY!). Every library book has a tangible cost and there is a small markup that accounts for salaries paid to librarians. The back-end is tied to inventory, prices, features, descriptions, shipping and various temporal factors.

The marketing dynamics of library catalogs and e-commerce catalogs may differ since there is no apparent immediacy to having a library catalog pay for itself. E-commerce is result driven – the only reason to have a catalog is to facilitate sales and educate the consumer. But, I believe the every librarian now sees how truly dynamic e-commerce web sites that sell books such as Amazon – by the very fact that they do need to see immediate results – have drastically outpaced the big Library catalogs. So, although the marketing approach may differ, it really, really should not.

Soap Box

So, are there employment opportunities for librarians in e-commerce? Obviously, there is for at least one. The problem is Corporate America does not know what librarians can do for them. It has been left to me to explain to the company presidents I have worked with that Libraries are, in fact, sophisticated and dynamic inventory control systems – that work just like their supply chains.

Library Schools do not even know that they are training people to create catalogs for e-commerce. But, they should and given the employment growth outlook for traditional librarianship, Library Schools should be touting the ability of their cataloguers to catalog, organize and describe everything.

To thank Karen Schneider for her years as co-moderator of PubLib, we are going to give her a bookshelf quilt. If all 10,000 PubLibbers contribute, so much the better—she’ll have a library-filled quilt!

By July 31, 2011, PubLibbers are asked to create signature blocks.

Here is how:

♦ Cut a piece of woven cotton fabric 2.5” x 5”.

♦ Any color.

♦ Must be woven. If there are no sewists in your household or among your colleagues, consider using a a piece from a shirt or a sheet.

♦ No knits. No textures (no terrycloth or corduroy).

♦ On that piece of fabric write your name and library or town – however you want to be identified. (If you use a pseudonym, that’s fine.)

♦ If possible use a Pigma brand pen. (Scrapbookers, quilters, and artists in other media use them.)

♦ Alternatives: a gel pen, a fine-tip Sharpie, India ink are all okay.

♦ Any color of ink is okay.

♦ *DO NOT USE* a Flair, a fountain pen, or a ballpoint pen.

Signature block with margins

♦ Keep a 1/4 to 1/2- inch margin all around the block. Do not write in the margin (that’s the seam allowance).

Library and Librarian Myths and Legends : the Truth behind the Stacks

Wisdom

Librarians have often been surrounded by mysteries, myths and legends. What is the truth about Librarians? Are they all-knowing godlike beings? Do books magically appear on shelves? Is the MLS a real degree? What about buns? These gems of corrective, collective wisdom are courtesy of the PubLib Listserve.

David Faulker in Austin, Texas opened the discussion of De-myth-ifying librarians with:

Just for fun I’m curious as to what are some of the wildest myths people have about our profession?

The one I hear is that, “it must be nice to work for a library and get to read all the time.”

to which the Publib Chorus responds ~

Well, there is always the one that all men who work in libraries are gay. Also that everyone is a volunteer. ~ Andrew Porteus

Everyone there is a librarian It is such a quiet, stress free place to work ~ Meg VanPatten

And it’s not just the patrons. I’ve actually had a board member ask me if I was a paid employee or a volunteer. ~ Dorothy Fleishman

“That must be a nice QUIET job.” ha. Come visit when we have 60 kids plus their associated older/younger siblings & adults on hand for storytime. Or when the Chinese Lion Dance team is parading through the stacks celebrating Chinese New Year. Or when two patrons start arguing about the noise from the headphones of one watching music videos online distracting the other who is trying to complete an online test. Or… well, you can fill in your own blanks here. ~ Tina Rawhouser

Most frequent for us, folks believe:

1. That publishers are required to give books to us – we don’t have to buy them.

2. That we are REQUIRED to put on the shelf certain books that the “government” tells us to.

3. That we are REQUIRED to put on the shelf any book anyone wants us to… ~ Dusty Gres

*That we spend all day reading

*That everyone who works at a library is a librarian

*That there’s no reason for us to be at work when the public isn’t there (or to be off-desk for specified shifts) because, without the public, we have “nothing to do” (I’ve even had a library employee question this)

*That libraries are peaceful, calm, quiet places of work suitable to introverts and the socially inept

*That being a librarian isn’t “real” work ~ Ann Moore

I’ve heard many who don’t frequent libraries say that libraries are nothing but a den of homeless people who smell bad, talk to themselves & bathe in the library restrooms. Our little library has none of that; the only ones talking to themselves are the perhaps staff – – after all the kids have gone through… ~ Karen Mahnk

Once at a pool party a guy asked me what I did. I told him that I was a librarian. He said, “That sounds really boring!” Turned out he was an accountant, I bit my tongue and said nothing. Librarianship is many things, but boring it aint! ~ George Hazelton

Does anyone think Laura Bush helped promote the idea that we read on the job? I remember when she said she loved being a librarian because she got to read her way through the gardening section. I cringed at that one. ~ Judy Anderson

“The ALA” controls public libraries ~ Nann Blaine Hilyard

granted, this one was from a 13-ish-year-old, but he was honestly surprised that I have a home, a husband, and a son. He actually said the words, “…you don’t stay here?” ~ Sarah Morrison

How about the (hopefully small) group of patrons who think the public library provides some sort of dating service with the employees as the dates? ~ Mary Jane Garrett -

How about those folks who want the medical/mental help advice (as if I’m qualified for that) and then start flirting with you? . . . my mum was shocked recently to discover that I help folks with technology questions. She thought I should hand over questions regarding things such as Microsoft Office, using email, or basic troubleshooting as to why the library computer won’t connect to the internet/print to the IT dept. All because I’m a librarian and I shouldn’t have to deal with technology. And then she asked me for help with her Kindle. ~ Megan Coleman

“What do we libraries or librarians for, isn’t everything available on the internet?” ~ Jane Jorgenson

When my fellow teachers ask how the contract affects me (uh, I have a K-12 teaching cert so the same as you) and were SHOCKED that I had a student teacher. Librarians are TEACHERS not SUPPORT STAFF ~ Steph Sweeney

That reminds me of the only time when our budget did not pass and it was suggested that we staff the reference desk with volunteers because people basically ask the same 3 or 4 questions! ~ Meg VanPatten

That I keep their information in some secret place to share with the government. ~ Terry Ann Lawler

Librarians are pushovers ~ Robert Balliot

. . . you must get so much needlepoint done in between customers at the library ~ Nann Blaine Hilyard

That all female librarians are some kind of sexual deviants hiding behind the stacks. ~ Melodie Franklin

The other one isn’t actually about librarians, but about libraries. That’s the one wherein people think the publishers GIVE us all those books. “You mean, you have to BUY the books?” Well, yeah, we do; with the fine money that is surely our only source of income (don’t people look at their property tax bills?). ~ Lynne S. Ingersoll

There’s the one that all female librarians are old maids with their hair in a bun and pencils stuck over their ears. The one I like the best is that we, men and women, are all smart and know everything! ~ Anne Felix

Aischylos sans bun

I use this one to my advantage. At least once every day I hear, “but you don’t look like a librarian.” To which I respond, “Oh. That’s because I quit putting my hair up in a bun.” Then I show them my MPB spot and add, “See? I ripped it out by the roots.” ~ Darrell Cook

Upon learning I am a librarian someone once said, “That must be peaceful.” Then I told her about the guy who came into the library following kids around who turned out to have a rap sheet with charges of assault and rape (minors) on it, how some patrons act when they haven’t been taking their meds, and the patron who yelled at me by telephone for five minutes because she felt two of my co-workers (no, I don’t supervise them)had not given her satisfactory help. ~ Kevin O’Kelly

Once a candidate for a job told me she wanted to work in a library because it’s an easy job where she could sit down all day. ~ Gair Helfrich

Boy, I sure would like to work in a place that has peace and quiet! ~ Linda Dydo

“I wish I got paid to read all day.”
“I wish I got paid to color and cut things out all day.”\ ~ B. Allison Gray

Several times I’ve spoken with people who can’t believe that we haven’t read all the books on our shelves. Maybe that’s why they think we’re smart? ~ Tom Cooper

Personnel & Personnel

People don’t understand–including people who are leaders, administrators, executives, whatever, in other vocations–that directors or other administrative folks in libraries deal with the same issues that other leaders, administrators, and executives do: personnel, personnel, and personnel, along with budgets, personnel, boards, personnel, personnel, and, now and then, personnel. Buildings and grounds. Contractors. Also personnel. ~ John Richmond

Directors named Dusty are male. And if a woman answers the phone she is his Secretary as in {snarky tone} “I ASKED to speak specifically to the Director NOT his Secretary…” And if I say, “This is the Director” then the response is, “Oh, well, Debbie…” or, this is the best one, “Oh, really, what’s your REAL name?” ~ Dusty Gres

They also think we keep everything forever! ~ Anne Felix

People always think that library staff get perks like getting to jump to the top of the holds queue or not having to pay overdue fines. I tell them that in terms of using the library, we are just like the patron and we get no special treatment, which always shocks them. They’re also surprised when I point out that, if anything, we have the opposite of perks because our coworkers know what we check out and put on hold and how much we owe, so we have to sacrifice our privacy. ~ Cheryl Hill

Surreal Librarian

I’ve had that ‘is that a real’ degree on the subject of the MLS a few times, and never once has a fearless leader of mine allowed me to smile sweetly and say ‘nope, it’s a surreal degree.’ ~ Kathleen Stipek

I am surprised by how many people ask, “How much does it cost to get a library card?” We have a fair number of immigrants in our community, and they are often surprised to learn that public libraries are free. ~ Anne Felix

. . . wasn’t that “a lot of education to sit behind a desk and wait for someone to ask a question?”!! ~ Penny Neubauer

I overheard a mother walking in front of my desk tell her child “Don’t bother the librarian. She’s busy working. They’re for important questions.” That child will probably never ask the librarians a question, and will probably not use the library as an adult. ~ Angela Morse

. . . people think that a library, any library, will keep forever that very special book or collection of books (or National Geographic Magazines) they are planning to give to the library one day. That day might be just tomorrow because they’re cleaning out the old family house after the death of a parent, or it might be a plan they’re making for years ahead when they move their stuff to a smaller apartment and get rid of some of their books. ~ Alain

Librarian Legend :

Coach's box= dugout

I first got Dodger season tickets in 1994. I got in the habit of bringing cookies to the guys in the bullpen.
The then-bullpen catcher asked me my name, but there was so much noise he couldn’t hear me.
I whipped out my business card and handed it to him. He walked over to the other guys, shaking his head, and saying: “You’ll never guess what she does for a living!” ~Sue Kamm